Abstract

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The physico-chemical properties of biodiesel are its specifications that define a set of quality standards. These properties include specific gravity, acid number, viscosity, cetane number, flashpoint, pour point, cloud point, cold filter flogging point, sulphated ash, carbon residue, sulphur content, copper strip corrosion and free fatty acid among others. This research presents the results of specific gravity, acid number, sulphur content, colour index and copper strip corrosion of biodiesel from Cotton, Jatropha, Neem and their binary blends and multi-blends with diesel. The properties were tested in accordance with the ASTM standards and it was observed that, all the fuels conform to the ASTM standards for all the properties except the pure Neem biodiesel B100N whose colour is slightly above the standard and the acid values that are slightly below the minimum standards which depict no harm. This implies that all the fuel samples can be used in Compression Ignition engines with the anticipation of improved quality of atomization, combustion, fuel droplets, air-fuel mixing and without fear of damages on either fuel pumps and filters or climate condition due to sulphur content of the fuel.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Binary Blends, Multi-Blends, Specific Gravity, Copper Strip, Color Index